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Red-Tailed Hawks Make Hollywood Sound Effects: Bird's Screeching Cry Heard Most Often During Spring Mating Season

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Fiona Cohen, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash., The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

Dec. 27--The red-tailed hawk is the most common hawk in North America. Hawk researcher Bud Anderson calls it the Ford or the Chevy of the hawk world.

In this area at least, the hawk has benefited from development. Seldom seen a century ago, they moved in when settlers cleared land. Many breed here. Others fly to Whatcom County for the winter.

The red-tailed hawks ranging our fields and highways in winter come in different colors. It's possible to see near-white ones and near-black ones, and a variety of brown and russet patterns in-between. Most, but not all, adults have the red tail. The varieties take up an extra page in most bird books. To make sure it is a red-tailed hawk, birders look at the shape and size of the bird. They look for dark tips on the underside of the wing feathers.

Once birders identify a hawk, they may have a chance to watch it over time. Wintering hawks return to same area year after year.

Hawks feed by staying still and watching the ground below for rodents, then diving for them. Sometimes they'll steal food from another hawk.

In the past 10 years, red-tailed hawks have been showing up with misshapen beaks. The malformed beak often causes the hawk to starve to death. When hawks are rescued and fed, they are able to recover. Hawk biologists don't know the cause of the problem.

Hollywood loves the red-tail hawk's screeching cry. Filmmakers use it as a noise for all kinds of birds of prey, especially the bald eagle.

Hawks call most often in the springtime, when they do mating flights. Male and female hawks will soar high in the air, then the male will dive, rise again steeply and dive again. Sometimes, he and the female will lock talons and spiral downward.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

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